Favourites // August 2018

September 10, 2018

I don’t mean to alarm you, but summer is over. Yep it’s officially Autumn. And isn’t it glorious?! I love Autumn – nice crisp weather, cosy evenings in watching the telly (which always has some decent series starting at this time of year) and candles flickering. Lovely. August was a bit of a wash out too, so I’m hoping we can leave the grey drizzle behind and crack on with warm orange crunchy leaves! Despite the August weather, I still had a good month – I won a holiday to Bari, southern Italy with Wizz Air, went to my first football game, rode the world’s longest, fastest city based zip wire, had a work trip to Oxford, got some good reading in, and fully embraced the leopard print trend. Here are my August faves.

I did a full post about this last week but a highlight of August was definitely winning a holiday to an unknown destination with Wizz Air. It was so exciting to rock up to the airport with no idea where we were off to and seeing “Mystery Flight” on all of the boards. We ended up in Bari, Italy which was the perfect destination for a short city break, with plenty of pretty cobbled streets to wander, lots of lovely little cafes to eat all the delicious Italian food, and a lovely golden sand beach to do all the paddling! Go check out my last post to read all about the excitement of boarding a flight to the unknown, and there’s another post coming on Friday with my Top 6 Things To Do in Bari.

New Look Leopard Print Skirt

Yes leopard print is back, yes this fills my heart with JOY!!! I’ve always been a fan of animal print and shunned the chav haters back in the day, but I’ve always held off from wearing it other than on accessories as I’ve always felt I’m a bit too big and at risk being hit with a sedation dart out in the street and being dragged back to the zoo. Well, no more friends! I’ve been feeling – on and off – a bit more body confident recently, which I’m putting partly down to some bloody awesome instagrammers – hello @midsizecollective. I bought this skirt just before I went to Bari and I bloody love it! It makes me feel super confident, it fits beautifully, and is also a super soft almost suedette material which makes me feel as sleek as an actual leopard. Thank you New Look.

New Look Leopard Sandals

Yeh alright, I got leopard sandals as well. And maybe leopard culottes, two more leopard skirts and a belt too…but look how pretty these are! I love the mix of tan and leopard patterns and textures, plus they’re real leather so are super supple and comfortable, and are wearing really well. They were a bargainous price of £19.99 and I got them for 25% off so they were only £15 – absolute steal!

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Probably the most hyped book of the summer, I had a bit of a love hate relationship with Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. I really struggled to get into it, not warming to the protagonist at all, and finding the dreary day to day storyline extremely draining. Then all of a sudden, a hint of an upcoming plot twist was dropped unexpectedly and it snapped into place for me. A modern tale of loneliness, I now realise that Gail Honeyman is actually a bit of a genius, and the way I felt at the beginning is pretty much how Eleanor has felt her whole life. It’s now firmly on my Must Read list and I’m doing to others as friends did to me, and urging everyone to read it and “KEEP GOING IT GETS AMAZING!” As always I listened to my book on Audible, and it also included an interview with the author at the end which was really interesting and added to my enjoyment.

We went to see Walking With Dinosaurs at the O2 and it was absolutely RAWRSOME! I’ve put a more in-depth review over in my “Fortnightly Round Up” post– which is my new blog series I’ve started, to share my adventures every two weeks – go check it out. Andy surprised me by coming back to our seats in the interval with this gorgeous cuddly Brachiosaurus who is literally the cutest little thing (and I’ve been wanting a dinosaur plushie for so long). I am 32 I promise.

I also posted about losing my Football Match virginityin my Fortnightly Round Up, but I had such a good time I just had to include it in my August Favourites as well. Balls, boys, booze and bawdy chants – I was in my element! It was a really great game too, keeping the fans on their toes at all times, and I had so much fun! It was great to share one of Andy’s great passions with him and we won to boot! Go read more about what happened when I went to my first football game here. C’MON BOROUGH!

I’ve been feeling really meh about my hair recently. It desperately needs a cut and the long hot summer has left it feeling quite dry, especially at the ends. I kindly got sent this Hempz Vanilla Plum shampoo which promised to hydrate and energise my hair, and I’ve been really happy with the results! It smells divine – a really pretty, warm and lightly fruity scent which isn’t overpowering or overly sweet. Hempz products are made with pure herbal extracts, enriched with 100% pure natural hemp seed oil and are totally paraben free – which is great as I have a super sensitive scalp. They’re also gluten free and 100% vegan too. A little goes a long way with this shampoo, it lathers up really nicely and the tube packaging makes it really easy to control how much you squeeze into your hand so you don’t get product overload. It’s definitely given the ends of my hair a lot more life – they look healthier and I’m noticing less breakages and split ends. A new firm fave.

Love Island Australia

I thought I’d had enough of Love Island for one year, after finding this year’s series a bit lack lustre compared to prior years (though that didn’t stop me watching pretty much every episode…) Then one night I was bored at home and decided just to have a little peek at Love Island Australia, to see if it really did deliver the goods that LI UK lacked this summer – (unstaged) DRAMA! And yes, yes it did! The girls are girls’ girls, the lads actually have personalities, and they all seem in there to actually have a good time, rather than to pout personality-less by the pool awaiting their In The Style sponsorship when they leave. I AM LOVING IT! There’s only five episodes a week on the ITV Hub so its a little but more manageable too, and they seem a lot shorter as they’re so action packed. So far there’s been bitching, back stabbing, sexing, partner stealing, physical fighting, and the best girl Love Island has ever seen – Erin! Please tell me someone else is watching?! Tell me your thoughts about Cassidy!!!

So there we have it. Bye bye Summer, hello Autumn! I’ve got another weekend away coming up in September – this time a girls weekend to Center Parcs – I’M READY FOR YOU RAPIDS! I’ll also be ramping up the holiday planning for India (which is now next month!) and lots of trips out and about to explore London with friends.